In conjunction with Yama, Giuseppe Guerriero has created the “Physical Sequencer”. The basic idea is that it transforms body movement into electronic music, much like a life-sized sequencer controller.

At the heart of the Physical Sequencer is a human-scale array of 56 proximity sensors arranged in an 7×8 grid. These detect the performer’s motions, transforming them via software mapping into music. In doing so, computer music-making is itself transformed, into an embodied practice that shares common ground with dance and theatre.

Here’s the controller in action:

In spite of the cheesy demo, it does look fairly interesting. There are other body-movement converters out there, but this is the first that I’ve seen that doesn’t actually attach to the body.

I guess this would be what a performance of John Cage’s 4’33” would look like using this controller:

• Dance music in a module
• GPS-based music controller – make music by driving!
• Hipdisk – the world’s most undignified musical instrument
• The MIDI suit